Strategy | Bynder Group

How to Make Your Website ADA Accessible—and Why You Should

November 4, 2022

At Bynder Group, we’ve been designing and building websites for over 20 years. In that time, we’ve seen the importance of website accessibility grow—and we’ve recently started partnering with accessiBe to provide our clients with a cost-effective solution that will help them achieve legal compliance for accessibility while still maintaining quality UX for all. Here we explain why website accessibility is so important and how you can easily make your website accessible to everyone.

Why is Website Accessibility Important?

Website accessibility simply means making sure that people with disabilities are able to access and navigate your website just as easily as anyone else. This includes individuals with visual, auditory, physical, speech, cognitive, and neurological disabilities. It also benefits those who may not have a disability but may still have trouble accessing a website, such as those using older browsers or devices.

Being ADA-compliant not only ensures that you are following the law but also shows a commitment to inclusivity and accessibility. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires that all public accommodation websites be accessible, and failure to do so can result in costly lawsuits. Plus, making your website accessible can also expand your potential audience and customer base.

Simple and affordable website accessibility compliance

Why Your Website Should be ADA Compliant

Avoid Lawsuits

Today, by the power of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), every business website has to be accessible to people with disabilities. The Law prohibits discrimination based on disability in places of “public accommodation”, meaning websites or brick-and-mortar facilities. Therefore, it is important for businesses to make their sites ADA compliant in order to avoid lawsuits or fines.

Practice Inclusivity

Another reason for compliance is the increasing awareness and understanding of digital accessibility among consumers. More people are recognizing the importance and value of accessible websites, and they may choose to do business with companies that prioritize inclusivity. Providing an inclusive experience for all users can improve brand image, enhance recruiting efforts, and increase customer loyalty.

Improve UX and SEO

Being ADA-compliant can also have a positive impact on your website’s search engine optimization (SEO). Accessibility guidelines often overlap with best practices for SEO, such as using descriptive alt text for images and properly structuring heading levels. Additionally, making your website accessible to screen reader users can improve the overall user experience, leading to better conversion rates and increased sales.

*Is your website compliant? Our accessibiity tools, powered by accessiBe, provide the tools you need to achieve full compliance.*

The Challenge of Website Accessibility Compliance

There are a few steps you can take to make your website accessible – but the process can be expensive, slow, and inefficient.

First, check for compatibility with assistive technologies such as screen readers. This can be done through manual testing or using online tools like WAVE.

Next, ensure that all content is readable and understandable without relying on visuals or sound. This can be achieved through the proper use of alternative text, closed captioning for videos, and clear language and formatting.

Additionally, include options for adjusting font size, color contrast, and navigational elements like a keyboard-accessible menu. Finally, regularly test and update your website to maintain compliance with accessibility guidelines and standards.

An easier and more cost-effective solution is to utilize an all-in-one software that specializes in ensuring accessibility compliance for websites.

accessible website — accessiBe’s accessWidget is the leading Al-powered web accessibility solution that makes websites accessible to people with disabilities, and compliant with the WCAG, ADA, and other accessibility legislation.

A Better Solution

We have found an excellent website drop-in from industry leader accessiBe that instantly brings a site into compliance with Section 508. Where we used to have to manually monitor a site, then manually fix all issues, then manually recheck a site periodically, we can now use this drop-in to handle it all — automatically.

This cost-effective solution can automatically scan and fix accessibility issues on your website in real-time, without compromising the design or functionality. To do this, accessiBe utilizes artificial intelligence (AI) and automation to continuously monitor and improve the accessibility of a website. It also offers customizable options for personalization, allowing users to tailor their experience on the site. By implementing accessiBe, businesses can both save time and effort in achieving compliance and provide a better user experience for individuals with disabilities.

Simple and affordable website accessibility compliance

How Can Bynder Group Help?

Our partnership with accessibe.com provides our clients with an easy way to make their websites accessible. The process is simple: first, we install the accessiBe tag on your site; then, accessiBe’s artificial intelligence engine analyzes your site and makes it accessible in real-time. This includes adding alt text to images, providing text transcripts for audio/video content, and more. Best of all, because accessiBe’s artificial intelligence engine continues to learn over time, your site will only become more accessible as time goes on.

If you’re interested in making your website accessible but don’t know where to start, we encourage you to reach out to us at Bynder Group to learn more. We’ll be happy to answer any questions you have and help you get started with website accessibility compliance.

Six Essential B2B Marketing Strategies

October 9, 2022

B2B marketing is challenging, even for the savviest marketers. Whether it’s manufacturing, distribution, professional services, technology, or healthcare, B2B buyers demand the same level of sophistication and polish that consumers do. Not only are B2B buyers sensitive to marketing tactics, they also tend to perform a lot of research prior to buying and expect engaging personalized human experiences.

That’s why B2B marketers must work harder than ever to differentiate their brand, drive lead generation, and build long-term trust and loyalty with their target audience. But how? There are many answers, but successful strategies all have one thing in common: They didn’t happen by accident. Whether you’re just getting started or looking for fresh ideas for your next growth phase, here are six essential marketing strategies that will guide you to success.

1. Build a Brand People Love

A brand people love is one that resonates with its customers at an emotional level. It’s a brand that engages customers, makes them feel an instant connection, and inspires them to take action. Marty Neuemier writes in his book The Brand Gap, “a brand is not what you say it is, it’s what they say it is”. You must steward your brand or risk losing control of it. Here are several key elements to keep in mind during the process of building a new brand or strengthening an existing one:

- What is your brand’s promise? What problem does your product or service solve for your customers? Why are you in business?
- Who and what does your brand represent? What are your core values and how is that communicated through your brand?
- Who are your customers? What are their needs, concerns, motivations, and aspirations?
- What do your brand assets, logo, color scheme, and tone of voice say about your business? What feelings do these elements inspire? How can you best translate these core elements into your marketing campaigns? What words are the most effective?

2. Leverage a High-Performing Website

One of the best ways to show B2B buyers that you’ve got what it takes to deliver amazing results is by creating a high-performing website that showcases your expertise and inspires action. The elements of your site include its design, content, navigation, user experience, and search engine optimization (SEO). These elements work in tandem to build trust, generate leads, and position your company as an industry leader. A site’s design is important, but it’s not everything. You can have a site that looks amazing but lacks the substance that draws leads and converts customers. On the other hand, you can have a site that looks average at best but has compelling content that educates your audience and prompts action. Ultimately, it’s the combination of these elements that will contribute to building an exceptional and effective website.

3. Write Great Content for Authority and SEO

B2B buyers are sophisticated and well-informed. They’re also busy and have a lot on their plate. That’s why, above all else, B2B customers want quality content that helps them make smarter decisions. Great content will increase organic traffic and drive more qualified prospects to your website. Whether you’re blogging, creating social media posts, or curating content on your website, quality content has the power to steer leads in your direction and keep them engaged once they’re there. That’s why B2B marketers must prioritize creating high-quality content that adds value to their buyers’ lives. When you consistently publish high-quality content that informs, educates, and engages your audience, search engines will notice and reward you with higher rankings.

4. Combine Paid and Owned Strategies

Paid advertising channels like Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and LinkedIn Ads can help you reach new audiences and boost the performance of your owned assets. At the same time, paid advertising channels are constantly evolving. As such, it’s important to stay on top of trends and experiment with new strategies to discover what works best for your business. For example, you might try experimenting with different ad creative, targeting specific audience segments for more personalized content, or expanding your budget to grow your audience. Whatever you do, don’t let paid marketing channels become a silo. Instead, integrate these strategies with your owned channels like your website, social media profiles, and blogs to create a cohesive and strategic marketing approach.

5. Employ Marketing Automation, CRM, and Lead Nurturing

Marketing automation tools like HubSpot and Marketo help you automate many of your marketing processes and improve your customer experience. You can set up automated emails to send at certain milestones like when someone signs up for your email list or when they download an asset from your website. This type of automation can streamline and simplify the way your team manages leads. It can also help you nurture leads who aren’t ready to buy yet, which is especially useful when selling to B2B audiences. Marketing automation is a great way to get closer to your audience and inform them about sales, product updates, and industry trends. It also helps you scale your efforts and deliver more efficiently.

6. Utilize Analytics and Reporting

Finally, you must track everything. You want to know who your customers are, how they’re finding you, what they’re doing once they’re on your site, and where they’re dropping off. Without tracking these metrics, it’s impossible to know whether your efforts are paying off and how you can improve. You can use tools like Google Analytics, HotJar, or HubSpot’s reporting and analytics tools to track everything from your site traffic and conversion rates to your marketing ROI. With this data in hand, you can create a B2B marketing strategy that works and delivers results every time.

Takeway

B2B marketing is challenging, but it doesn’t have to be overwhelming. By following these six essential B2B marketing strategies, you can strengthen your brand, build trust, and position your company as an industry leader. Remember, it won’t happen overnight. Building a brand, driving leads, and strengthening your reputation takes time. But it’s worth it. When you deliver on your promise to your customers, they’ll trust you more, buy from you again and again, and recommend you to others.

From Chaos to Clarity: How to Build a Better Customer Experience

September 5, 2022

Your customers’ experience is a vital part of marketing. It’s the first impression, the last impression, and everything in between. A great customer experience (CX) can increase customer lifetime value, improve retention and drive referrals. Conversely, a bad customer experience has the opposite effect.

It is essential to ensure that every touchpoint—from website, to email, to social media, to chat tools, to phone calls, and more—is a positive experience for your customers.

Complexity Breeds Chaos

Consumers now have unprecedented access to brands, products, and services. As a result, companies now have more channels and properties to manage than ever before. This abundance is both exciting and overwhelming for both marketers and prospects.

With this abundance, most marketers today struggle to provide an incredible customer experience because they’ve lost control over their marketing touchpoints through complexity. The result is that prospects have negative customer experiences using outdated and ineffectual websites and are subject to unfocused, poorly executed marketing programs.

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Most marketers have no idea how many different tools they use or where they go wrong with their customer experience. With systems cobbled together, processes are overly complex, and reporting is inaccurate or non-existent.

In response to this complexity, many companies have turned to automation tools like CRM or email marketing software to make sense of their data. But unfortunately, these tools don’t work in conjunction with one another. As a result, marketers must use multiple tools simultaneously, which is ineffective and inefficient, which causes adoption rates for non-integrated technology tools to plummet. Additionally, manual efforts are redundant, your customer data gets lost in confusion, and reporting is inaccurate.

The net result of all this complexity is that your business growth stalls, your efforts are unfocused, and your leadership is frustrated.

Achieve Clarity for Growth

The good news? You don’t need to hack together your marketing or learn multiple tools to provide a fantastic customer experience. Instead, companies can use HubSpot’s powerful Marketing Hub and world-class CMS Hub to improve their customer experience and increase ROI through a simplified, unified toolset for growth.

When your critical elements of customer experience management—Content, Messaging, Automation, Reporting & Data—are unified in technology and effort, your ROI magnifies tremendously. A single buyer’s experience becomes the center of it all.

Improving customer experience with unified marketing, website, and sales have several benefits for you and your customers:

A single source of truth improves your buyer experience with one customer record, not many.
An intuitive user experience and easy-to-use software will improve adoption among your team.
You will see a reduced total cost of ownership by taking a strategic approach to the consolidation of customer tech.

Plus, businesses improve organic website traffic and inbound leads over time using Marketing Hub and CMS Hub combined.

Why struggle with disorder and chaos when your business can benefit from a CRM-powered growth engine that will improve your customer experience, and that is customized to fit your business needs? Adopting a unified approach to marketing your business improves your customer experience and empowers you to:

Use data to create sophisticated experiences across all customer touchpoints.
Leverage automation to ensure a seamless customer experience, from the first website visit to handing off to sales.
Create better content by removing gatekeepers.
Effortlessly report on the ROI of every customer touchpoint.
Keep your messaging consistent across all touchpoints.

Pipeline Generation

August 28, 2022

Pipeline generation is the lifeblood of most companies. A high-performing pipeline aligns sales and marketing efforts and clarifies available opportunities to maximize potential. When done well, the pipeline flows full with prospects that are a good match. Good match prospects have a higher close rate because the service matches the client’s needs. Likewise, good-match customers and clients see better results with their service providers because values and cultures are aligned.

Bynder Group director Rob Bynder recently completed the Pipeline Generation Bootcamp, an immersive 6-week program provided by HubSpot Academy designed to teach HubSpot partners and customers the first parts of the inbound sales process. The experience was highly informative and a perfect blend of education, inspiration, and motivation.

Instructors for this cohort included Trygve Olsen, Keith Gutierrez, and Debbie Akintonde, all HubSpot Certified Trainers. Also on hand to share knowledge and enliven the group was Dan Tyre, Sales Director at HubSpot, who pioneered the concept of alignment between sales and marketing known as “Smarketing.”

Align Marketing and Sales

Businesses that bridge the gap between marketing and sales see better results using this more strategic approach to client acquisition and growth.

While some of the tasks associated with pipeline generation are outbound practices, the spirit of the inbound methodology is the foundation of inbound sales. The goal is to be helpful and respectful rather than pushy, aggressive, or “salesy.” Providing value to customers through helpfulness encourages trust and enhances rapport.

The program covered all elements of implementing effective connect calls, including:

How to identify good fit leads
How to speak and what to say
How to use voicemail and how to coordinate email
How and why to leverage video
How to address objections

The training included workbooks, presentations, access to numerous additional resources, and real-life role-playing, where we could practice the techniques on each other in break-out rooms. Practice and role-playing are highly encouraged and provide a valuable process for working out the kinks. Also covered was the use of conversational pauses and listening techniques like “chin-strokes” and open-ended questions to encourage more and better communication.

What’s the Upshot?

Bynder Group provides expert guidance on web strategy, design, marketing, and HubSpot CRM for our B2B clients. With the knowledge gained from training programs like the Pipeline Generation Bootcamp, we further provide our clients with additional insight into the skills, techniques, and best practices of high-quality pipeline generation. When used with HubSpot’s powerful marketing, sales, and operations tools, our clients see better results and higher ROI from their efforts.

How to Increase Qualified Organic Traffic to Your Company Website

February 20, 2022

When it comes to organic traffic, the quality of your traffic matters just as much as the quantity. Although increasing organic traffic takes longer than advertising, it generally produces better results and higher conversions at a more consistent rate. It’s a long-range investment in your brand that will pay off in multiples down the road. Here are some best practices for how to improve the quality of your B2B company website traffic.

Maintain high-quality content

Your B2B business website should contain fresh and original content that is interesting, well-written, and authoritative. The content should also be relevant and useful to those who visit your site. Rather than merely promoting your company news over and over, focus instead on answering your customer’s questions and helping solve their problems. This improves trust and authenticity in how your customers view your business. High-quality content is a cornerstone of effective inbound marketing.

Keep your content flowing

New and updated content keeps your visitors coming back for more. It improves brand awareness, increases brand equity, and reinforces your marketplace positioning.

New content will also attract the attention of search engines and web users alike. Search engines will index new content and bring more visitors to your site while visitors will stay longer on your site if there is new material for them to read or see.

Use effective search engine optimization tools

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of optimizing your website to rank higher on search engines like Google, Yahoo!, and Bing when prospects search for certain keywords. There are a number of factors that impact how well your website ranks. These include technical elements like page load speed, image size, and site structure, as well as content-related factors like keyword usage and quality links pointing back to your site.

There are two main components to SEO: on-page and off-page. On-page deals with the technical aspects of a website, while off-page focuses on building authority. Combined, these elements work together to attract more qualified organic traffic.

Leverage personalized email marketing

Email marketing is an excellent way to send targeted, relevant messages to your customers and increase website traffic. It’s a highly effective marketing channel that, when used properly, can help improve brand awareness and generate leads, as well as drive sales for your business. Email marketing is also one of the most cost-effective ways to reach your target audience.

Be active on complimentary channels

LinkedIn’s publishing platform and community sites like Quora and Reddit are effective tools for driving qualified organic traffic. Publish original content on LinkedIn that’s connected to your anchor website content to find a new audience and leverage content you’ve already produced. You can also use Quora to demonstrate your expertise and link it to your relevant content. Posting useful content on Reddit and linking back to your website can also boost your visibility.

Produce high-quality gated content

Sharing high-quality gated content on your website is a proven technique for improving organic traffic. Acquiring leads is a big driver of business growth, and online content is a great way to attract profitable customer leads. Gated content is free content that requires contact information for visitors to access. It can include downloads like ebooks, white papers, and presentations. Other forms of gated content can include live webinars, podcasts, and on-demand media. Focus on the high-quality part for better results.

While there isn’t a secret shortcut to increasing your organic traffic overnight, there are proven methods you can leverage to dramatically increase organic website traffic and turn your website into a lead generation engine. What’s more, many companies overspend on costly and ineffective advertising campaigns to boost traffic when they could be putting those same resources towards more effective—and longer-lasting—techniques. If you want your business to succeed in a competitive market and want to get the most out of your marketing budget, use these strategies to increase your qualified organic website traffic.

How to Grow Your Manufacturing Business

November 20, 2021

Manufacturing is a crucial component of the global economy. According to the Global Manufacturing Industry Report 2020, as recently as 2018, the industry represented nearly 16% of the global GDP. Today, manufacturing is more critical than ever but faces a host of new challenges. Skilled labor is hard to find and keep. Consumers are becoming harder to reach. Technology is changing, competition is getting more fierce, and growing a manufacturing business during a global crisis is incredibly difficult. Here are tips to grow your manufacturing business with tools, technology, and methodology.

Manufacturing is Under Pressure

*Deloitte. (2021). Creating Pathways for Tomorrow’s Workforce Today

Efficiency is at a Premium

For industries in a crunch, efficiency is key. You’re required to do more with less in a way that serves your bottom line. Digitizing legacy sales and marketing processes has helped many manufacturers pick up the pace, but what if that’s not enough? No matter how great your products are, outpacing the competition won’t happen with the old way of doing things.

Choose the Best CRM to Avoid Silos and Reduce Friction

Choosing the right CRM for your business is challenging and can be complicated. Businesses often end up with cobbled-together systems that create silos between your departments and friction in your processes. Technology platforms that are not a good fit can stunt your growth, producing inefficiencies and unnecessary complexities to your processes.

Having worked with many software systems since we started in 2002, we have found that HubSpot provides an optimized technology platform for manufacturers that meets the needs of businesses as they grow — without adding unnecessary costs or complexity. According to top software ranking site G2, Hubspot is one of the highest-rated and highest performing products in the industry. Similarly, Captera ranks HubSpot with 4 1/2 stars. The all-in-one platform creates seamless integration across marketing, sales, customer service, and operations. This gives you visibility and insights into the entire customer journey, creating improved customer experiences and less work for your team by creating efficiencies in every step of the sales, marketing, and service processes.

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Operate with a Lean Marketing Strategy

Many manufacturing companies limp along with an ineffective website and digital marketing strategy that is not helping their businesses. A good website—designed with business goals in mind—will help you get more out of your existing customers and distributors and find new ones. Leveraging inbound marketing strategy, will attract customers, build trust, and nurture relationships. Most importantly, leverage reporting that provides the clarity you need to help you adjust and optimize our efforts.

When developing your marketing strategy, focus on:

Search: Leveraging education and helpful content that attracts prospective customers to your website over your competitors
Automation: Nurturing your leads to the point of conversion by building trust all along the sales cycle.
Segmentation and tracking: Store all of your data in one place to best understand the full lifecycle and every touch-point of your prospective customers.

Scale With Confidence

Manufacturers are under pressure and need business solutions that address their unique needs. Finding and implementing the right tools is mandatory for companies to achieve and sustain growth.

Key takeaways:

Avoid the inefficiency and waste that comes with cobbled-together solutions.
Consolidate and integrate your technology and get all of your departments and their efforts on the same track.
Whether it’s in-house, outsourced, or a hybrid of both, your marketing strategy needs to be lean and focused, with a strong methodology.
Track your ROI with data-driven processes and unified technology.

Bridging the gap between your departments, reducing friction in your processes, and using data to track all of your efforts will improve your ROI and lift your bottom line.